


You Taste as Sweet as Faerie Fruit

by paulatheprokaryote



Category: The Cruel Prince, The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Basically Just Smut, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Smut, but i've had this sitting in my folder for like a month now, no real plot, sex really out of nowhere, so i'm just going to post it as is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 03:28:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14463999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paulatheprokaryote/pseuds/paulatheprokaryote
Summary: Cardan gets more than he bargained for.





	You Taste as Sweet as Faerie Fruit

“Holy shit,” swore Jude as she lugged Cardan’s unconscious, mildly mangled body up the staircase to her rooms. 

She winced slightly when his head knocked against the hard, cold stone of the winding staircase, but it was really his fault for being so tall. She would have left him on the ground. It was honestly what he deserved for being an absolute _idiot_ , but she still had the presence of mind to consider any potential spies or threats who would love nothing more than to take advantage of the High King in his rather vulnerable state. She would have called for servants, but really, servants talk and she didn’t want people to know that someone, _especially not the Ghost,_ had knocked the High King out cold. 

If he had done it in the throne room, she would have just locked the door and left him there. If it was in the Court of Shadows, she wouldn’t have even bothered locking up. _No, it had to be in the gardens. On the stone patio. Where anyone could happen upon him._

So, with the Ghost disappearing in an annoyed huff, the Roach drunk on the finest of throat-scorching liquor, and the Bomb nowhere to be seen, it was up to Jude to drag his body somewhere safe until he woke up. 

Her fingers dug into his loose emerald doublet, slipping repeatedly on the dark silk shirt underneath. She turned him into the hallway so that he was mostly leaning on her, but she lost her footing, and knocked him into the wall with a light thud. She grimaced, but was glad that at least he was taking the brunt of the damage. At some point, during one of the many struggles to get him up the stairs, his tail had wriggled free and was swaying about, twisting and coiling around her arms and her neck. The tuff caressed her cheek a few times causing her to shiver. She briefly considered cutting it off with the blade in her boot.

“You’re a foul, odious beast, you know that?” she hissed at his fluttering eyelashes, as soft as spidersilk against her shoulder where he leaned. His eyes remained closed though and she groaned. A bitter part of her was certain he’d stay unconscious just to spite her. 

She stood outside her door, wondering if she could pull him back up again if she dumped him on the floor long enough to open the door. She settled for pinning his body between her own and the corner of the door frame as she fumbled for the knob. His eyes fluttered open again and his gaze on her was accompanied with a lazy, smirking sort of grin as his hands flitted down her sides to her hips.

“Did I best him?” Cardan asked, his warm breath tickling her neck. He was not really helping her by supporting his own weight. He tucked his face into the crook of her neck and she was indignant at the liberties he thought he could take with her. 

“No, you idiot. You just lunged yourself at him and he flipped you over his shoulder,” she said. She was trying to ignore the twisting in her stomach when his laugh vibrated just under her jaw.

“I thought for sure I had him that time,” he said, his fingers leaving her long enough to graze the bloody gash on his forehead. It would heal soon, she was certain, but she still found herself fighting the urge to fuss over it. She dumped him unceremoniously on her bed. 

“If you wanted me in your bed, Jude, you just had to ask,” he said teasingly light, but his groggy eyes were a dark contrast to his tone. 

“And just like that, you’d oblige?” she arched her eyebrow, challenging him. 

His answering smirk was caddish.

“You must have hit your head harder than I thought,” she grumbled and turned from him, a breath catching in her throat as his nimble fingers began to unfasten his doublet. 

“Keep your clothes on,” she chided him and she filled a basin with warm water. He chuckled. When she strided to him, she couldn’t ignore his face filled with wicked amusement and he’d removed his doublet entirely. His silk undershirt hung loose around his throat, exposing more of him than she’d prefer to see. 

She gave him a hard look and the mirth on his face transformed to pure delight. 

“Tell me, my Queen,” he purred at her, rolling his sleeves to his elbows, “which makes you more uncomfortable? Seeing me undressing in your chambers or not being the one undressing me?” 

She crinkled her nose at him, his stupid question, and ignored him. She dipped the cloth into the basin and lifted it to his forehead. He hissed when the cloth touched the gash and his hand wrapped around her hand to pull it away. His tightened grip caused some water droplets to slide down her wrist, catching in the crook of her elbow and his sharp eyes traced it like he was stranded in a desert. His grip became feather light as his hand slipped down her wrist, down her forearm, and he swiped at the water. 

“I think I have more wounds from your _assistance_ than I’ve ever had sparring with the Ghost,” he said in a jagged voice. He was trying to get a rise out of her. 

“If you try to attack him again, I’ll drag your half dead body from crag to crag across all three islands until you beg me for mercy.” 

“There are other things I wouldn’t mind begging you for instead,” Cardan said with a wicked gleam. 

“Are you–” Jude peered closer into his face and his breath hitched, “Are you drunk? Is that what this is?” 

“Not yet. I was waiting until my victory over the Ghost before I started drinking,” Cardan said and Jude snorted. 

“Well, it’ll be nice to have you sober for the rest of your reign then,” Jude said with a laugh. 

“You don’t think I could best him?” he asked and she swore she saw a gleam of hurt. 

“Remarkably, Cardan, I don’t think you want to actually best him,” she speculated. 

“Why wouldn’t I? I’ve been doing sparring lessons with him, after all,” Cardan countered, but his face was guarded and the thought of his previous sparring lessons with Balekin caused her heart to ache. Her fingers slipped to his shoulders, smoothing over his back where she’d seen him lashed before. His eyes widened and she snatched her fingers away. 

“You’re taking lessons because I commanded it,” she said with all the authority that she could muster, but her voice quivered. He shrugged, his hands fisted in the fabric of the bed so tightly that his knuckles were as pale as the moon above. 

“Is that so?” he said with a calm, but unsteady voice. 

“Yes,” she breathed. She realized that now that he was awake again she didn’t really have any reason to keep him in her room and Cardan didn’t really seem inclined to leave. There was a tense, heavy moment where both of them seemed to decide not to mention it though. 

Then, he was leaning toward her with hooded eyes focusing on her parted lips. She sucked in a breath, watching as his lips drew nearer and nearer to hers. His dark gaze darted between her lips and her eyes, watching for her hesitation or anger or malice. Without thinking, she closed the distance between them. 

His cruel mouth, silenced by her own, was soft. For a long moment, both of them remained stock still, remembering another kiss months before, and then his eyes fluttered shut, his spider-silk lashes tickling her her cheeks. She was drunk on adrenaline and high on the tension that always seemed to taunt them. 

His smooth hands ghosted down her arms, down her sides, landing momentarily on her hips. She was torn between the impulse to slap him away or to squirm against him. He pulled her tightly against him though, as if making the decision for her. She was anchored in his lap, anchored in the moment. He kissed her hard with a sort of devouring desperation. Every taste of his tongue was like faerie fruit, muddling her mind, and she understood in that moment what it was like for the humans who craved the sweet, dangerous juice enough to starve themselves for another taste. His fingers knotted in her hair. Her own hands abandoned her tentative grasp on his shoulders and twined behind his neck, fisting his hair so tight it would surely bruise.

He gasped against her and her fingers dipped to his shoulders again and then she drug her nails along his spine. She traced every scar, mapping her way across his body. He groaned into her mouth and the sound shot straight to her core. His mouth slid from hers, along her jaw, and he nipped at the spot just under her ear. She let out a throaty sound and he sank his teeth into her again. She clawed at him, both wanting him closer and wanting him as far from her as possible. His hand crept under her shirt, mouth still on her throat, he caressed her waist, her breasts, and then her clavicle, before pulling his lips from her skin to look at her. His eyes were dark, his lips were swollen and red, and he lifted the seam of her shirt slightly in askance. She raised her arms over her head and he pulled the tunic up slowly as if he was committing her to memory. His eyes roamed along her before he yanked the hem of his own shirt up and over swiftly. 

His kisses returned to her jawline, before sliding down the nape of her neck, sucking the skin purple and bruised. Her breath was ragged and coming in desperate puffs. 

_‘I need to regain some kind of control,’_ her mind screamed until she could no longer ignore it. Her hands snaked down his chest to the waistline of his trousers and he froze. Her eyes darted to his, at the base of her throat, and his eyebrows were raised in question. 

“I want you. I want this,” she said and he blinked slowly, like he was puzzling her words together to make sense of them. 

“I want you too,” he said at last and she unbuttoned his trousers. 

She tugged them off and slung them somewhere behind her as he tugged at the legs of her own pants. When she was bare to him with nothing but her floral Target underwear left, Cardan grinned at her again, his dark eyes hungrily taking in the sight with languid, drawn out glances as he cocked his head. 

“Mortal underclothes. Who knew?” he said and she wondered what he meant by that, but he shook his head and she planted her lips back on his. Her stomach roiled in anticipation, a pool of desire making her feel desperate. He fumbled for the clasp, pausing only long enough to curse it when he couldn’t figure it out, until she slid her arm from his clawed back and pinched it in a blink of an eye. He looked at her with awe at the ease of it and she thought that if she didn’t hate him in the morning, she’d teach him how to unclasp it. 

He pressed her back, into the pillows and softly kissed down her throat, her chest until he nipped at her breasts. His teeth grazed her nipples and she let out a gasp. He smirked, pleased by her reaction, and alternated between soft scrapes and soothing licks. He kissed down her abdomen, down to her navel, down to her hip bones. He thumbed her underwear down and she nearly hissed at the cold air in contrast to his warm breath on her skin. He nipped her hip bones, leaving love bites across her body. She arched into him, desperate for more. His smile was lazy as he found her folds and nudged his finger along her. She couldn’t decide if it was the cool metal from his rings dragging along her sensitive skin or if it was just his touch that had her quaking. 

When his mouth replaced his hands, her vision blurred with hallucinated stars and she found herself writhing in ecstasy in mere minutes. She was certain that the headboard would have indentions from her nails when she looked next. 

“You have only seen the _least_ of what I can do,” he said as she shuddered against him and his lips quirked into a lazy, self-satisfied grin.

His warm body covered hers, slick with perspiration. He nudged against her gently at first before settling slowly between her legs. The foreign pinching sensation was briefly uncomfortably, but not more uncomfortable than the foreign sensation of the gentle look Cardan gave her as he searched her face. 

“Is this okay?” he asked and her heart clenched in response. 

She nodded to him, a needy whimper escaping, and he pushed all the way in, setting a slow, gentle pace. He pressed light kisses to her cheeks and nose as his pace picked up. She hissed a breathy gasp when he brushed against a sensitive spot and he let out a helpless, strangled sort of sound before picking up the pace. She ground against him, arching her back, desperate for the same friction from a moment before. 

“You feel–” he began, searching for the right word. She nipped his lower lip and he gave up on finding the words. 

The steady rhythm built a desperate sort of feeling in her core and he stroked her in time with the thrusts until they were both teetering on the edge. White edged her vision and for the first time since she put the crown on Cardan’s head or perhaps even since she’d come to Faerie she felt the euphoria of having no worries in the world, just pure happiness. The pleasure was almost too much for someone so used to suffering.

When he came moments later, her name was a prayer on his tongue. He whispered it again and again, as though reading from the crumpled paper that she’d found in the book. _“Jude, Jude, Jude, Jude, Jude, Jude.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I have a few more things to post, but I'm going to go ahead and put this up here! Sorry for being MIA, it's been some crazy few weeks IRL and I'm just now getting more free time. I'll still take prompts though if you have anything you want to read! Special shoutout to Di who requested some smutty Cardan/Jude.
> 
> EDIT: some of y'all also have seen some of my edits roaming the internet and I've made this new one so I figured I'd post it here really fast 
> 
>  
> 
> [ liiiiiinnnnnkkkk ](http://paulatheprokaryote.tumblr.com/post/173726293691/ayyyy-ive-written-quite-a-few-fics-for-the-cruel)


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